Happy Halloween!!

The pagans who lived in Britain 200 years ago celebrated New Year on 1st November. Then the Christians came and celebrated “Hallowmas”, a festival between 31^st October and 2^nd November.

31^st October slowly changed the name to HALLOWEEN.

In the past, people believed that bad spirits came in winter. They wanted bad spirits to go away, so they made fires outside and used pumpkins to make jack o’ lanterns.

To make a jack o’ lantern, people cut a hole in a large fruit. Then they put a candle in the hole, and cut a face in the side.

Another thing people do is to dress like witches and ghosts to make the bad spirits go away. People often put up decorations for Halloween parties, play games such as "bobbing apples", attend costume parties and bonfires, tell scary stories and watch horror films.

Children go “trick or treating”. They dress like witches and ghosts, and go to the houses in small groups.When someone answers the door, the children say: TRICK OR TREAT? and the person in the house must decide. They may give the children a treat ( chocolate, fruit, sweets…) or the children will play a trick on them . The children sometimes throw eggs at the house.

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Read the text and do these exercises in your notebook:

1 Answer these questions:

•  When do we celebrate Halloween?
•  What countries typically celebrate Halloween?
•  What is a jack-o-lantern?
•  Can you mention three activities people often do in Halloween?

2 Find the meaning of the underlined words (you can use a dictionary)

3 Find out the meaning of the word "halloween".

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4 Now, watch this cartoon related to Halloween and answer these questions in your notebook:

a What are the children doing?
b Mention four things children have got in their bags.
c What does the last child get?

Halloween is fun, isn't it? Enjoy a lot and don't forget to bring your HOMEWORK to class!!